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CBP Provides More Details on Revised ACE Timeline

September 2, 2015 |Top News

CBP posted additional details on the agency's recently revised plans for transitioning to the Automated Commercial Environment (here). CBP decided to push back some of the mandatory use dates for ACE in response to readiness concerns for the system (see 1509010017). As part of the updated schedule, beginning Feb. 28, ACE will be required for electronic entries and entry summaries, as well as for Food and Drug Administration, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Lacey Act data.

The Feb. 28 transition to ACE covers the following electronic entry/entry summary types:

Data filing for most other Partner Government Agencies will be required after CBP publishes a final rule, expected for July. That final rule will create a "no hybrid" policy, prohibiting filers from submitting PGA data partially electronically and partially in paper form. "The Final Rule will still allow hybrid submissions for those PGAs whose regulations require submission of supplemental information via paper only," said CBP.

There will be four exceptions to the "no hybrid" policy, the agency said. Those exemptions will apply to: data provided by filers who are required or elect to file entirely in paper; data currently provided to agencies in paper forms, when those agencies have received approval for the continued use of specific paper documents; data required by agencies that have not completed regulatory amendments to authorize the collection of data electronically; and "electronic submissions of supplemental information filed directly with a PGA, until technical capabilities are available to file such information in ACE via the Document Image System (DIS) or otherwise (which shall occur no later than the December 2016 deadline)."

CBP also updates its schedule for Partner Government Agency pilot programs (here). The list includes information on forms and data requirements by associated agency, program/commodity, and includes related status for pilots, working groups, and technical documentation. It also shows whether the forms will be submitted via the PGA Message Set or DIS. According to the schedule, the agencies with ongoing pilots are: FDA, NHTSA, CBP, Food Safety and Inspection Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, Environmental Protection Agency and Defense Contracts Management Agency. Additional pilots are scheduled as follows: